An Informational Forum for Parents
On Wednesday, October 12, from 6:00 - 8:00 PM, join Bon Secours Family Focus and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a discussion about child trafficking. The free event is at Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital Health Resource Center, 2 Bernardine Drive, in Newport News and is open to the public.
Join the conversation and learn:
- What is child trafficking?
- Signs, symptoms and effects of child trafficking.
- The four types of trafficking.
- What puts children at risk for trafficking.
- How to keep children safe from child trafficking.
- Mentalities of a typical victim.
- Psychology of a typical predator.
- How social media makes juveniles vulnerable.
- What parents can do to help prevent the commercial exploitation of children.
According to
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), trafficking is not a crime that happens just in other countries. The
National Human Trafficking Resource Center indicates that human trafficking is a form of modern slavery that occurs in every state, including Virginia. Human trafficking affects every community in the United States across age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic backgrounds. Their national hotline has had 27,775 human trafficking cases reported since December of 2007.
Anyone can be trafficked, regardless of who they are, when forcefully coerced or enticed by false promises. Traffickers may target minor victims through social media, telephone chat lines, after-school programs, as well as at shopping malls and bus depots, in clubs, or through friends or acquaintances who recruit students on school campuses.
Child trafficking victims, whether used for labor, sex or organ trafficking, come from all backgrounds and include both boys and girls. The children at risk are not just high school students - traffickers are known to prey on victims as young as 9.
To register, or for more information, please email
delores_price@bshsi.org or call 757-886-6511.